Running and Space Camp!

Two big moments in my little life today – my first attempt at jogging in about 10 years and I registered the family for Space Camp.

At first Tiffany at Space Camp thought I was nuts for wanting 4 adults to go to camp with 2 kids but why not, we have been hot air ballooning together for the best day of one granddaughters life, para sailing for another best day of her life, white water rafting, canoeing, hiking and jet skiing (another best day). Everybody has done it all as a family unit.

At 220 pounds, my daughter sees my commitment to hit 205 and told me to book Space Camp. This is not weakness and she’s even tougher and meaner than I am so I won’t screw up. We are now booked into our next family adventure on Memorial Day Weekend unless we do another one first. Naturally, I’ll get an official astronautics space suits for all of us.

Now running was not quite that kind of thrill and I have always hated it. In football, the best I ran was about a 6 minute mile unless the guy had a ball and I was allowed to hurt him if I caught him. I was told I was phenomenally fast for the first 40 yards which is about what I made today.

All kidding aside, I have my own treadmill which I occasionally use but am far more consistent when a member of a gym with a caring mentor. To test my limit without embarrassment, I put on my heart monitor did a brisk walk for 5 minutes and pumped up the speed to 5.5 miles per hour or about 11 minutes per mile. From around 110, my heart rate jumped to 145 and I was beat after 15 seconds. I forced myself to keep that pace for a whole minute and then walked at half that speed for the next 15 minutes until my heart rate was under 120. I simply don’t know what possessed me – its not required for Space Camp by either them or my daughter I just thought it would be cool to run a mile again.

Proof Positive – there is no fool like an old fool! – but this old fool is still in good enough shape to keep having fun and I can still keep up physically with 7-10 year olds. Actually the last time I ran at all was at Fort McHenry where my granddaughter and I raced my son-in-law across the ramparts. We both beat him. Oh yeah he had to carry my other granddaughter to make the race fair.